This monumental twin-towered church’s classical features offer an interesting contrast with Brune’s 1902 Gothic Revival Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (GC26) in Biloxi. The tan brick building combines round-arched windows and a Greek-styled, one-story pedimented portico carried on two sets of triple Ionic columns. Square towers of unequal heights flank the balustraded facade. The Franz Mayer and F. X. Zettler companies in Munich created the stained glass windows, which depict events in the life of Mary. The serene and light-filled interior has a three-aisled nave separated by Ionic columns and a semicircular apse with a painted half dome. The church’s sturdy construction proved itself during Katrina’s storm surge, and an Angel of Light statue on the front lawn recognizes the volunteers who rehabilitated it.
Nearby, St. Stanislaus College (304 S. Beach), was established as a boys’ boarding school in 1854 by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. The brick Colonial Revival auditorium and library building (1929, Andrew S. Montz) on the south and the gymnasium (1923, Diboll and Owen) on the north frame a combined administration and student union building (1971) by Lawrence and Saunders of New Orleans.